It’s been nine years in the making, but finally Special Agent Kensi Bly (Daniela Ruah) and L.A.P.D. Liaison Marty Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen) are going to walk down the aisle on this coming Sunday’s “Till Death Do Us Part” episode of NCIS: Los Angeles.

“I didn’t think it would ever happen,” Ruah tells Parade.com in this exclusive interview. “I mean, heck, I didn’t think they would get together at all. It’s one of those things where you start the show, and we don’t know how long the show’s going to go, and, obviously, the longer the show goes in terms of seasons, the more you’re going to have to develop a relationship.”

And develop a relationship they did, despite Kensi’s history with men — they either die or leave her — and the resulting baggage she brought into the relationship.

“Then this guy shows up and he’s funny and he’s, obviously, very smart,” Ruah says. “It’s also about what he needed out of this relationship, it’s not only about Kensi. I feel the best thing about these two characters is that they give each other the freedom to deal with whatever they need to deal with on their own and when they can’t do that anymore, they’re there to help each other. They’re an incredible support system, and above all, they listen to each other.”

Of course, in typical NCIS: LA fashion, the wedding doesn’t go off without a hitch. Anatoli Kirkin (Ravil Isyanov) pays Deeks a surprise visit on his wedding day and he isn’t alone. So, even though it is a joyful occasion, it isn’t without the requisite action and crime solving. And Ruah takes a little bit of the credit for how the episode plays out.

“Our show runner Scott Gemmill is quite wonderful at saying, ‘Is there anything that you guys want to try this season? What haven’t you done that you would like to do?,’ and I just remember saying, ‘You know what? During the wedding episode, I want to fight in my dress.’ So, sure enough, he gives me that opportunity, which I’m really pleased about.”

But in order for that to happen, the wedding dress had to have certain qualities. It couldn’t be strapless because that could lead to a serious wardrobe malfunction and it had to be affordable because there had to be multiples of the dress, especially because it goes from maxi to mini.

“Obviously, the wardrobe department did all the legwork when it came to tracking down the dress and having it fit perfectly for me, but I found the dress,” Ruah says. “I found the image of the dress and I said, ‘If you guys can get hold of this, it doesn’t seem too expensive,’ because for some reason I do care about that part of it like I was buying it for myself.”

For more scoop on the wedding — and the latest news on Linda Hunt — check out the rest of the conversation with Ruah below:

Are you worried now that they’re married, their relationship will jump the shark?

I did think, “Well, if they get into a relationship where do you go from there?” Well, it turns out there’s plenty of places to go. I thought, “Well, when they make us get married, it’ll be l the last episode of the last season ever. That’s not the case. We’ve been shooting all these episodes post wedding and it’s been great. There’s plenty of places to go.

Fortunately, our show is mostly based on the personal lives and on the relationships of these characters and the people outside of this team, but it’s also about the case so there’s just so much to play with. Our writers and our show runners — prior to Scott it was Shane Brennan — they’re just so incredibly creative. We’re on episode 238 and we’re still going.

One thing Deeks does for Kensi is he definitely makes her lighten up.

He does make her lighten up. This was interesting because I think the fact that she was not so lightened up was my fault as an actress, not so much as a choice for the character. I was, “Oh, she’s tough and she’s smart,” and in my immature mindset at the time, I interpreted that as she doesn’t really find stuff very funny, but you can be tough, you can be smart and still be a goofball. I think that’s something that Eric, as a real person and as an actor, when he joined, he helped me, Dani, see that.

In one of the notes I remember getting when Eric joined us, because he is so free with his wit and his quick comebacks, he’s very naturally funny, and so I was trying to play it too stoic and too distant with his sense of humor. One of the notes I got was, “Relax. It’s okay to find him funny in the scene. It doesn’t change who his character is, you can find him funny.” They said this to me in different words, I’m just interpreting it politely for the interview, and that’s when I realized, “It’s okay to be a goofball with him and respond in a similar mode,” and it’s worked really well for us.

Have you seen the wedding episode?

I haven’t seen it. I can’t wait. I’m so curious to see how they’re going to cut the actual ceremony together because, even on the page, it was cut to this, cut to that, back and forth and you hear the vows over their faces and then sometimes you hear us actually saying it. I have no idea how it comes together. It was like a real wedding. You plan, you plan, you plan, it’s nine years in the making and the day comes and it’s all a blur.

Speaking of the vows, do your characters write their own or are they going to be standard vows?

The characters wrote their own. They’re very appropriate for what each character has to say to the other.

Did it bring back memories of your real wedding? Did you cry?

No. I did not. But then there’s another part in the episode where there’s a letter that Kensi wrote to Deeks and it’s something to do with the box [that she gave him in season four], so what’s in the box comes accompanied by a letter that Kensi has written for Deeks and the reading of that is almost like a vow in itself. I think that part was almost more emotional than the actual vows in the ceremony. The ceremony is happy, it’s honest, it’s beautiful, but I think that heart-drop moment is in the reading of that letter.

So are we finally going to get to meet all of Kensi’s girlfriends?

Yes, I got to meet Mindy, Mandy, Tiffany, Tiffany, and Cat. The wedding episode’s going to be the first time we’ve ever seen them and I have to say that our casting department did a great job. They’re very funny girls. They kind of fit perfectly for being friends of Kensi, and one of them who plays Mandy is pregnant, so she’s very emotional and, even though it’s Kensi’s day, she takes some time to console her friend who feels like she looks like a shopping cart. It’s very funny.

So was there a resolution on their honeymoon? They were talking about somewhere in South America I think?

They end up spending their honeymoon in Malibu and they come back and Deeks is like, “It’s a whole new thing. It was our honeymoon; it was beautiful.” Kensi’s like, “It was Malibu. It’s a place we go to every weekend.” She was like, “We’re still the same couple.” So it’s actually funny because we come back post honeymoon and everyone’s like, “How was it? Was it great? Deeks is like, “It was marvelous. It was amazing.” Kensi’s like, “It was fine.”

They’re obviously a philanthropic couple, who want to make the world a better place, but everything they planned to do for some reason did not pan out for their honeymoon. I like the feeling that they’re going to go do that during hiatus. I think on their free time, they would definitely not be the couple to sit around and do nothing.

I do talk to Linda. We all love her so very much. She’s mamma bear to this whole family. Fans should expect to see her sometime this season. She’s okay and looking forward to Hetty’s return when possible.

AMG/Parade Digital

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